My husband and I are 40ish and have done cruises on various Celebrity, Cunard, Star and NCL ships. We flew into Rome 2 days early and stayed at the Sheraton. Not a new hotel, but with very warm service, great breakfast and with a good shuttle service into town. Transfer to and from the port was no problem. We had booked a "Rome Taxi" transfer at EUR130 each way. They were punctual, very helpful and cars were well maintained and new. We reached the dock at around 12 and boarding was extremely quick. We were on the ship in less than 5 minutes.

The Ship: If you like rich wood paneling, lush carpeting, thick table clothes and fine China, you should cruise on the Millennium series of ships. If you like white plastic, aircraft cabin like mood lighting, sterile China and tiled flooring, you would like Solstice. The little wood on board, or actually "faux wood paneling", at the Sky Observation Lounge entrance was already severely blistering and falling off the walls. Negotiating the long walk from the front cabins to the aft Blu dining room was also treacherous, since much of it is through tiled areas. Very unlike Millie where a girl can safely walk her high heels through lush carpet on the way to the dining room. The ship only has 2 elevator banks, again unlike Millie class that has 3. The waits for the lifts were incredible long and very annoying. The Lawn Club was nice, but all of it had been declared a smoking zone. Also, the outside area of the buffet was much smaller. We had next to no chance to sit outside, which was one of our favorite spots on the Millie ships. None of the pools appeared significantly bigger either, yet you have 1,000 more passengers on board. On sea days, it was very, very difficult to secure seats on deck, let alone a recliner. There were babies in the pool and Jacuzzi (even in the Aqua Spa). One promptly emptied its gut into the Jacuzzi, right next to us. Kids were jumping into the pools from the Jacuzzis above with no regard what or whom they would hit at the bottom. We were disappointed that dozens of staff were hawking drinks, yet none were assigned to ensure basic pool safety, let alone enforce Celebrity rules such as "nobody under 16 in the Aqua Spa pool or Jacuzzis".

In short, Solstice feels a lot more crammed than Millie class ships. Although Solstice has a few more gimmicks, such as its Lawn Club, none of the facilities that really matter are missing from Millie. Solstice is a very generic looking ship, with little character of its own. It is undoubtedly designed to be easily sold to another line in a couple of years. Read more